TALLADEGA, Ala.—Drivers were hot in the Sprint Cup race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

Many of their cars were running hot. Others were just frustrated that they were involved in wrecks. Only 24 of the 43 cars were running at the finish because of wrecks and mechanical failures.

Brad Keselowski was involved in one of the wrecks, but didn’t suffer any damage to his car and wound up winning the race.

What we learned:

Wrecks anger drivers

A nine-car wreck on Lap 143 of the 194-lap race could have ranked as the big one, but there were other incidents that meant more as the race had to be extended by six laps because of a late accident.

The scheduled 188-lap race had a three-car wreck on Lap 176, a two-car wreck on Lap 181 and a nine-car pileup on Lap 185 to set up a green-white-checkered finish.

Among the drivers involved in the final wreck was Tony Stewart, who had restarted 11th and had hoped to hook up with friend Kevin Harvick to go to the front.

Stewart, who asked last week if he was amazed there had been no wrecks in the last three races, acted as if he had had enough of them Sunday.

“If we haven't crashed at least 50 percent of the field by the end of the race, we need to extend the race until we at least crash 50 percent of the cars because it's not fair to these fans for them to not see any more wrecks than that and more torn-up cars,” Stewart deadpanned.

“We still had over half the cars running at the end and it shouldn't be that way."

The late accident that collected Stewart occurred when Denny Hamlin, restarting seventh, was blocked by AJ Allmendinger, who was running sixth.

Allmendinger apologized for the accident.

“I tried to block, if Denny was already there, my apology.” he said.

“I think what he saw was that I was going to the inside and he hooked a hard left to try to block, but I was there,” Hamlin said. “I turned him and a couple other guys. It ruined a bunch of guys’ days, but that’s part of it.”

Even winner Brad Keselowski had contact with another car, sending former teammate Kurt Busch for a spin as they ran second and third. He apologized for that.

According to Stewart’s sarcastic rant, Keselowski and Allmendinger had nothing to apologize for.

"I'm upset that we didn't crash more cars,” Stewart said. “I feel like that is what we are here for. I feel bad if I don't spend at least $150,000 in torn-up race cars going back to the shop.

“We definitely have to do a better job with that."

Running hot

Some teams had worries that their engines would overheat. Those worries proved warranted.

NASCAR limited the size of the grille openings on the cars to 50 square inches. If a driver tried to push another car, that small opening would be flush against the rear bumper of the car being pushed, forcing the car doing the pushing to overheat.

But the limited airflow even when not pushing caused problems.

“This temp thing is kind of a joke,” Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon said. “They are going to have to fix that.

“We all knew that was going to be a big issue, but when you can't really even race because of the temps, even in a regular pack, that’s an issue.”

It seemed the Chevrolets with Hendrick and Earnhardt Childress Racing engines had the biggest problems.

“NASCAR has got us in a terrible box here as far as temperatures and things like that,” said Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick.

“You run around in a pack at 260 (degrees), but I love this style racing. They just have to figure out a way to do it without the engines."

Others weren’t so sure.

“I didn’t have any trouble,” said Carl Edwards. “If they go back and work on their radiators and coolers, I’m sure they’ll be better.”

NASCAR drivers and crews seemed frustrated with NASCAR’s attitude that they need to learn to race with the rules they are given. But race-winning owner Roger Penske seemed to endorse that theory.

“To me, it was a matter of how hard you wanted to push,” Penske said. “You had to watch your water and oil temperatures. … I think the rules are fine.”

Not only did teams have worries about engines overheating, they also had fuel-mileage issues. This is the first season that teams are using a fuel-injection system, and either they had trouble with their calculations or getting fuel into the car.

Stewart, Harvick, Jeff Burton and Aric Almirola were among those with fuel issues.

Keselowski has selective memory

Keselowski figured out how to win while being the leader on the final lap — figuring out how to create enough distance between himself and his pusher by breaking them apart by going high in Turn 3 of the final lap.

He learned that by watching the finishes of past races and hashing out a plan.

But what he didn’t have in his head were memories of 2009 when Carl Edwards was leading and Keselowski was second and he turned Edwards, who tried to block him, with Edwards eventually getting airborne.

And what he didn’t think about was he and second-place Kyle Busch not being the best of friends.

“I refuse to let the prior events of the past serve as intimidation,” Keselowski said. “I never had a concern in my mind about who was behind me.

“I had a concern about what I could do to win the race and what move I could execute to not give him a chance. That paid off today.”

Keselowski nearly a Chase lock

The victory gave Keselowski his second win of the season, meaning as long as he stays in the top 20 in the standings, he’s a virtual lock to make the Chase For The Sprint Cup.

Last year he earned one of the two wild-card spots that go to the drivers 11th-20th with the most wins after 26 races.

“I'm hungry to win that championship,” Keselowski said. “But I refuse to label this year a failure if that goal is not accomplished.”